Players, owners schedule Tuesday meeting

After the postponement last week of the opening of the NBA’s training camps and the first preseason games, it would have been understandable if both sides had retrenched in the NBA’s labor battle and cooled their heels for a few days.

The upcoming Rosh Hashanah holidays approaching on Thursday and Friday will shelve negotiations at the end of the week. It also puts increased importance on making headway in the negotiations starting tomorrow.

It again will be small groups from both sides. NBA commissioner David Stern, NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver, deputy general counsel Dan Rube and Spurs owner Peter Holt will represent the league. NBPA executive director Billy Hunter, NBPA president Derek Fisher, general counsel Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy will attend for the players.

Pro Basketball Talk.com reports that the union and the owners still haven’t come close to figuring out what consitutes “basketball related income.”

The owners offered 46 percent of the BRI to the players at the last meeting, while the players haven’t gone lower than 52-53 percent. They had 57 percent of the BRI in their last contract which expired in June.

It still appears to be a huge gap.

But the fact the two sides are negotiating is a promising sign — particularly after last week’s postponements.